Svetlana Maksimović

Svetlana Maksimović completed a doctorate degree in composition at Toronto University in February 2006 with the work Four Museum Rooms. Formerly she earned her diploma in composition at the Faculty of Music in Belgrade, thus being a student of Vasilije Mokranjac.

During the whole career she has been teaching harmony, counterpoint and composition for educational and creative purposes. From 1974 till 1993 S. Maksimović taught at K. Stanković school of music in Belgrade, also wrote papers on contemporary music and church melodies. Moreover, while at the doctorate program she was involved in Teaching Assistant duties at Toronto University. Among works written in Canada, from 1996 till 2006, many came as commissions and were programmed for different festivals: New Music Festival Toronto, Women’s Music Festival in Ottawa, New Music Festival in Windsor, Canadian Chinese Festival. Olivera Đurđević, Zorica Dimitrijević-Stošić, Irina Arsikin, Serbian String Quartet, Radio Beograd Symphony Orchestra, Pro Arte Ensemble are some of the artists who premiered her works, together with numerous artists in Canada.

Orchestral music Four Museum Rooms is based on a research. It is composed in modes of ancient cultures of several regions as a background for free imaginative work. Modes have been studied through the available literature and also through some ancient instruments that we know of. The first movement is written on two modes from Egyptian territories, titled Nile. The second movement is written on modes from Middle Ages of folk, Catalan, tradition and of official religious music in Christendom (Medieval Europe). The title of it is Harvester’s song and Agnus Dei. The third movement is based on the pentatonic mode, related to the ancient Chinese culture, and titled Five Strings. Beside using three modes in Haevester’s Song and Agnus Dei this music is a distant reflection of life lived “on Earth and of Earth” in the first part, and of Gregorian Chant in the second, symbolizing the twilight of holly Christianity.